The Choices She Makes
by Oneiromancy
Summary: [AU] Quistis and her daughter live a content life, but her daughter starts wondering who her father is. Could it be someone that they’re close to now? Follow the events leading up to that moment. [Quistis x ?].
1. Prologue: Ever Wonder?

**The Choices She Makes  
**_Prologue: Ever wonder?  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFVIII; or its characters. «Applies Throughout Story»

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The sun shined its rays down on a secluded field near a small brick ranch house that resided not very far from an edge of a quaint little town. A chilly wind picked up as a tall blonde woman and young identically blonde child play out in the field, amongst all the grass and greenery. The foliage of the trees held the crispest red and yellow leaves that are on the verge of drifting to the ground with every gust of the wind.

The older woman smiles at her younger counterpart. The wind was blowing their golden locks as they ran around in a game of tag. "It's getting a little chilly, Quinn. We should go inside." She called out.

The little girl about the age of six ran towards the woman, "Okay, Mommy." She slipped her small hand in her mother's bigger one and they made their way towards the house.

The house was small but fit for the two of them. Opening the screen door, the woman led her daughter into the house. "Want to make cookies?"

The girl's bright blue eyes lit up as she happily exclaimed, "YAH!" Quinn let go of her mother's hand and rushed towards the kitchen and began taking out ingredients.

The woman smiles as she follows Quinn into the kitchen, supervising her daughter. Always ready to take initiative, amazed as the girl remembers all the ingredients for the cookie recipe. She takes off her coat and sets it on one of the kitchen table's chairs.

The woman's blue eyes briefly look over at the fridge. It was adorned with colorful doodles and drawings of sorceresses and knights; cowboys and horses; and lions. Her daughter had a very colorful imagination. The content of the art, though, had to be blame for the stories her friends always told her.

In the top corner of the fridge, there was a small picture. One of which consisted of the blonde woman, a really young Quinn, and three men that surrounded the girls. The tallest of the three men was blonde with sea green eyes. He was smirking at the camera. The second tallest of the three, wore a cowboy hat and had a lazy grin on his face. The last and shortest of the men but taller than the woman, wore a fur-collared jacket. His dark brown hair falling into his face as he faintly smiled.

"Mommy, what does this say?" Quinn's voice rang out in the kitchen.

The woman shifts her gaze back to her daughter and walked over to her. She looked over the girl's shoulder and read the word that Quinn was pointing at, "Margarine."

The little girl's eyebrows furrowed together, "What's that?"

"It's almost like butter. People use it sometimes if they don't have butter, but look we do." She points to the sticks of butter that Quinn had already pulled out. She turns to her daughter and starts to unwind the scarf around Quinn's neck. "Take off your jacket, sweetie, you'll get it dirty."

"Oh, yah, I forgot." She slips out of her jacket and hands it to her mother.

The woman places the jacket on top of her own on the chair. She turns back around to watch her daughter. Never seized to be amazed at how bright her child was. Quinn, more or less, recalled the recipe from memory and didn't rely much on even reading the recipe card that she pointed to earlier. She sits down at the kitchen table and flips open the newspaper that was resting on the table. She slips on thin-rimmed reading glasses on her face.

After a moment of silence between the two, Quinn looks up from stirring the contents in a large bowl. "Mommy, I wanna ask you somethin'."

Her mother looks up from reading, "Yes?"

"Uhm. I was wondering, but how come I don't have a dad?"

The woman frowns slightly, "You do. It's just complicated."

Quinn's blue eyes widen, "Really? Who is it? Do I know him? How come you guys aren't married?" The girl let the questions tumble out of her mouth, curious about her mother's love life.

The mother purses her lips together, sighs, and rubs the side of her forehead, "I wanted to tell you when you're older."

The little girl pouts and whines a little, "But I wanna knoooow."

She sighs again, knowing that once it's brought up that there was no changing the subject since Quinn is a persistent child. "Well…"

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**A/N: **I'm not quite sure where I'm heading with this story, but I have a general idea of what I want. I just hope that I'm a decent enough writer not to make any of this confusing. I want this to be a guessing game.

The prologue was basically a glimpse at the Quistis's future, but dundundun who's the father of Quinn? The child looks exactly like Quistis so bleeeh. xP

I greatly appreciate any type of feedback.


	2. Chapter 1: Ever Get Frustrated?

**The Choices She Makes  
**_Chapter 1 – Ever get frustrated?  
_Written by: Oneiromancy

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A slender, blonde young lady, more or less twenty years old, strolls through her school's campus. She had a black messenger bag slung on her left shoulder and her boots clicked along the winding pathway as she made her way towards the parking lot.

The sun was high in the sky on the peaceful Friday afternoon. It was a little chilly out due to the autumn weather. A breeze whipped by, sending a chill down the woman's spine. She crossed her arms and rubbed her upper arms in an attempt to warm herself.

She had a long day of classes, one after the other, with hardly any break. All because of her killer scheduling skills and her strive to graduate as soon as she could. She was in her final year of college, studying her way to becoming a teacher.

She approached her car, fumbling through her bag's pocket in search of her car keys. Her search is interrupted by a faint vibrating sound somewhere in her bag. Locating her cell phone, she pulls it out and looks at the screen. Selphie.

She answers the phone, "Hi Selph."

"Hey Quisty." A young woman's voice chirps from the other line. "I was wondering if you were going to go out tomorrow night with me and Rin."

"I can't, I have to work tomorrow night." She said simply.

"Awwwh," Selphie whines. "But we were going to take my cousin for a night out."

The blonde furrows her eyebrows together, still looking for her car keys in her bag. "You didn't mention anything about your cousin."

"Yah, I did." She pauses. "Wait, maybe I didn't. Anyways, that's beside the point. You're always so busy, so a night out would be nice."

Quistis narrowed her eyes, finding her keys and then unlocking her car door. She slipped into the driver's seat and dropped her bag in the passenger side. "You know I need this money. My parents aren't exactly paying for my college."

"I know—"

"Or my apartment, or my phone bill, or any of my other bills as a matter of fact." She interrupts and continues as she starts the car to turn on the heater.

"Ever since I've known you, you've been working so hard. You were the first of us to get a job, and even graduated from high school a semester early. I understand you want to be more independent from your parents, but you need a night out and whether or not, me and Rin are going to kidnap you from your work so you better tell your boss that you're not working tomorrow night." She finishes, not even taking a breath between her extremely long rant.

"Selphie—"

It was Selphie's turn to interrupt Quistis, "I'm not taking no for an answer." In all the years Quistis had known Selphie. She knew she was usually a happy-go-lucky person, always cheerful, but when something wasn't going to go her way she was very persistent into making it happen.

Quistis sighed rubbing the bridge of her nose, "I'll see what I can do."

"Good." Selphie replied cheerfully. "Rin wants to go clubbing. Is that all right with you?"

"Fine by me."

"Yep, it'll piss off my cousin." She giggled, "Ooh, did you know Rin and my cousin dated for like one summer. You know when her dad took her on that vacation because they needed father-daughter time."

She raised her eyebrows, "Oh really? That's nice."

"Mhm. I think Rin was completely out of it for that summer. I don't know if any girl in the right mind would date him. He's such a jerk. There was that one time when…"

Only half listening to Selphie talk about her cousin and how rude he is, Quistis's let her eyes roam the parking lot. From her vantage point, she spotted a brunette getting into his car, his back was to her. He was fairly tall with shaggy brown hair that fell across his face. She smiled.

"Hello, earth to Quisty." Selphie said amused.

Quistis eyes broke away from admiring the man, who was now pulling out of his parking space and speeding away. "Hrm?"

"You weren't even listening to my story." She whined.

"Yah, I was. You were saying that Rin dated your cousin and that he is a jerk."

"Uh, yah, I did, but that was quite a while ago," she said exasperated.

"I'm sorry, Selph. My mind was elsewhere." Her eyebrows furrowed together, "Wait, if you don't like your cousin so much, how come you're going to hang out with him tomorrow night."

"Because my parentals are punishing me for totaling the new car they got me for my birthday. Plus, he's family and I should be nice," she snorts at the last word. "And Rin said she wouldn't mind anyways."

"I see, but why is he even staying at your family's house?"

"Oh, it's 'cause his parents kicked him out of his house for dropping out of college, and he has no job. My parents think that if he stays here and we're supportive maybe he'll make it out on his own. Don't worry about it; I won't let him ruin our night out." She answered. "He's really a smart guy, but he's just got such a mouth and—"

"Oh, well, look Selph, but I'm gonna go." She interrupted the girl know that if she didn't stop her there, Selphie was going to go off on another tangent about her cousin's inability to keep a job. "I have to be at work in a few hours and I wanted to get some rest and get ready. I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Okay, Quisty. Talk to you later. Bye."

"Bye." She hung up and dropped her cell phone back into her bag. A night out with friends definitely would be nice. She smiled and slipped on a pair of sunglasses on her face, and drove off.

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Work wasn't exactly a relaxing atmosphere for Quistis on Fridays. Since it was always busy on Friday and weekend nights. It was true what Selphie said though. Quistis was the first out of her friends to get a job. She waitressed at a small popular restaurant in her town.

Quistis knew that if she asked her boss, Darcy, for a night off, she would let her have it. It was because Darcy knew Quistis for so long, since she was a family friend. Her boss, who was the owner of the restaurant, was a kind middle-aged lady. She always gave Quistis days off but Quistis never took them.

Quistis was an only child. When she was two she was adopted by the Trepe family because Mrs. Trepe was barren and wanted a child. The couple did however take pride in their little adopted daughter. She was bright and was head of her class, making her valedictorian.

She loved her adoptive parents and they cared for her just the same. The only thing was Quistis wanted to be independent much to her parents' protests. She didn't want to rely on her parents because they did so much for her already so she got a job early, and studied hard.

"Hey Quis!" A feminine voice called out as Quistis entered the restaurant.

She turned to look at the owner of the voice to find a petite blonde girl with a pixie-style haircut. She was dressed in their uniform of a long sleeved red button-up collared shirt and a black mini skirt. "Hey Sam." She looked around at the crowded tables, "Busy as usual, huh?"

"Yep!" The girl exclaimed looking around with Quistis. "Oh crap, that table is calling me. I'll catch you later Quis." She waves as she rushes away. Quistis watched her go, her blue eyes setting on the occupants at the table. They were a group of burly men probably drinking their weight in alcohol.

"Quistis, table five needs a server." A man told her as he walked past her to retrieve a tray of food meant for the table he was serving at.

"Yah, I'm going." The tall blonde straightened her skirt and pulled her long blonde hair up in a messy bun. She grabbed a pen and a small pad of paper made her way to the designated table where a blonde man occupied by himself. His sea green eyes watched her as she approached the table.

Standing next to the table, she plastered on a smile and said in a polite voice, "Hi, I'm your waitress for this evening. How can I help you?" Being much closer now, she could study his features. He was handsome, his golden hair was swept back with strands that fell forward giving his face a boyish appeal. She couldn't help but wonder why a good-looking man like himself was sitting alone.

"Number six with a beer." He replied looking her over and smiling appreciatively.

Her cheeks heated up a little at his smile, "All right. If I could have some form of identification, I'll be on my way."

He cocked an eyebrow, "Identification, why?"

"Well as restaurant policy, we need to check if people are of drinking age." She was still wearing her smile.

"That's stupid." He reached in his back pocket and whipped out a driver's license and flashed it to her. "See." He put it back into his wallet.

The corner of her mouth was twitching from smiling. She waitressed for more than five years at that restaurant and she became trained in knowing the exact things to look for when checking ID, "I hate to inform you, but you look nothing like your picture. I also don't think your name is Sheik Abdullah."

"What makes you think that, of course I am Sheik." He gave her a funny look.

"Uh huh, and I'm the queen of England." She said sarcastically. "Why don't you just order something else to drink?"

He frowned, still unwilling to give up, "The beer will be fine, babe. Run along now."

"Sir, I can't serve you that because you did not give sufficient identification." She insisted. "And I will not tolerate being called names." She said holding her head up high.

He smirked, "Yah, what are you going to do about it, _babe_? If you keep this up, I'm not going to leave you a nice tip. That's what you waitresses basically live on, right?"

She narrowed her eyes, "For your information, I wouldn't care less to get a tip from you, if you're going to keep giving me such a hassle."

He leans back in his seat still evilly smirking, "So I'm getting to you now, huh?"

Before she could answer a voice was heard behind her, "Hey, Quis, having trouble?" A tall middle-aged woman asked.

She turned to the woman, "Yes, this customer wants an alcoholic beverage but does not have any identification to show me."

The older woman turned to the blonde man who was lazily watching the two workers, "Is this true?"

He furrowed his eyebrows together and lied, "No, I ordered a number six with a root beer. I think your waitress here missed the root part."

Quistis glared at the man, but before she could protest, the woman said, "Yes, sir. I'm sorry about the inconvenience. We'll give you a complimentary apple pie with your meal." The woman grabbed Quistis's arm and dragged her away from the table.

Once they were out of the man's hearing distance, "He's lying. He ordered a beer, not a root beer." Quistis said exasperated.

"Just let it go, Quis. He's a customer, nonetheless, and we take care of our customers." Quistis glanced back over her shoulder at table five feeling a bit unnerved as the man kept his eyes trained on her.

Quistis sighed. "Yah, okay." She turned to walk away but remembered to ask, "Darcy is it all right if I have tomorrow night off?"

Darcy smiled, "Sure. You know you're my best waitress here, but I could get Sam to fill in for you."

Quistis smiled. "Thanks." She rushed off to another table to take orders. After a minute or so of taking orders from tables, she couldn't shake the feeling that the man was watching her. She walked over to the dreaded table five with a glass of root beer and placed it in front of him. "Here, you go sir, your root _beer_." She said with a forced smile.

He smiled at her, "Thanks. Is it possible I could get a straw, please?"

"Yes, I'll go get one for you."

"Thanks." She was about to walk away, but he called out, "Make sure it's a green bendy one. I like those."

She raised an eyebrow as she went to retrieve his straw. A green bendy straw, what is wrong with this guy? He makes a big deal about his beer, but doesn't want to make a scene in front of her boss, now he's polite enough to ask for a GREEN BENDY STRAW.

Too bad the restaurant didn't own bendy straws. She grabbed a green straw though and proceeded to return back to the table. She handed the straw to him, "I'm sorry, we don't have bendy straws."

"That's okay." He flashed a smile at her. "Thanks." He dunked the straw into his drink and brought it to his lips. She watched mesmerized while he drank. He smirked again placing his drink down, "Something on my face?"

Her eyes widen and she blushed slightly, but wanted to smack that smirk off his face, "Oh, no. I'm sorry, but is there anything else you need?"

"Nope."

"Okay, well your meal will be ready shortly." She quickly walked away, accidentally bumping into a short blonde co-worker.

"OW."

"I'm sorry Sam." She apologized.

"It's okay Quis. Ooh, I saw the guy who's sitting at table 5. He's a hunk." They both turn to look at him. He was staring down at his drink swishing it around with his straw.

"I guess." She simply commented.

"Mhm." The girl dreamily sighed, "I wonder why he's alone."

Quistis shrugged, "Beats me." She was still staring aimlessly at him, the man looked up and caught her stare and winked.

She rolled her eyes, turning away from him. "Better go, food can't be served by itself."

Sam giggled, "You're right." She grabbed a tray of food and headed for the nearest table fulfilling her waitress duties. Quistis did the same, returning once again to retrieve another tray with a tasty number six placed on the tray. She carried the tray over to the person who ordered it.

She took the plate off the tray and set it on the table. "Here you go. Would you need anything else?"

His sea green eyes looked up at her. "Nope, by the way where's my complimentary apple pie?"

She narrowed her eyes, "Between you and me, you don't deserve that pie, but it's coming."

He grinned up at her. "Thanks babe."

She shot him a glare before she stalked off. The past half hour went by, uneventful, besides snappy customers and drunken morons. She returned back to an empty table five to clear up the dishes. She was even surprised that he left an overgenerous tip. She slipped the money into her pocket and picked up the plates to find a napkin written on underneath it.

_Thanks for the lovely meal and service, babe. Call me._

A phone number was scrawled underneath the message. There was something wrong with that guy. She shrugged and shoved the napkin in her pocket. She finished cleaning the table and carried the plates back to the kitchen.

He was going to be on her mind for the rest of the night.

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The doorbell rang throughout Quistis's apartment. "God, I'm coming. Hold on." She shouted trying to hook a silver hoop earring in her ear as she rushed towards the door to open it. As she swung the door open, she smiled at the two girls, "Hi Selph, Hi Rin!"

"Hi Quis," the raven haired with chocolate brown eyes greeted smiling.

"Hey Quisty," the green-eyed brunette exclaimed. "My cousin's parking the car, so he'll be up in a minute. Then you two can get acquainted and then we'll leave."

"All right," Quistis opened the door wider and welcomed her two friends in. They walked into the living room and each took seats. Her two friends sat in a plush white love seat, and Quistis took a seat in a matching armchair.

"Cute outfit by the way." Selphie complimented Quistis.

Quistis smiled, "Thanks." She was wearing low cut jeans with a studded silver belt and a turtleneck sleeveless pale pink sweater. "You too," she said still staring at Selphie's outfit. Selphie was wearing a short green skirt with knee-high black boots. Her top was a yellow sweater with a vest that matched her skirt covering it.

"Are you guys saying my outfit isn't great?" Rinoa asked fishing for compliments. She didn't like people not paying attention to her.

"Awh, Rin. I already told you your outfit was great." Selphie explained.

"I know you did, but Quis didn't." She pouted.

Quistis looked her outfit over, "Rin, your outfits are always great." Rinoa was wearing a short denim skirt with a white low-cut top with matching white heels.

Rinoa smiled, her brown eyes twinkling, "I think Quis needs to show more leg."

Quistis frowned, "Would we like to keep in mind that it's probably about twenty degrees outside."

Rinoa giggled, "But it gets hot dancing."

The blonde frowned, "I'll be fine."

"Ooh, how was work yesterday?" Selphie asked.

"All right, there was some guy that kept driving me insane. He left his phone number. Why… I will never know." Quistis said shaking her head.

The raven-haired girl rolled her eyes, "Because he obviously liked you, Quis. You need to date more. You should call him up. Tell him to go clubbing tonight."

Before Quistis could answer about her lack of love life and protest that she wasn't going to bother to call the guy, a sharp hard knock is heard on the door. "That's probably Seifer." Selphie said.

Quistis walked over to the door and opened it to find a tall familiar blonde standing in the apartment building's hallway looking back at her with his mocking sea green eyes. Her azure eyes widen in surprise, "YOU!"

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**A/N: **Thank you for the reviews. I'm glad that some of you find it interesting, mwah, I just hope I write it well enough that it stays interesting.

I am in need of a little feedback here. Would it be confusing if I referred back to Quinn and Quistis in the present even though the basis of the story is of Quistis's past?

Oh, and telling me what you thought of the chapter is always nice. ;))


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